The Giver

I just closed the back cover on The Giver, by Lois Lowry.  Late to the game, again, I know.  My 12 year old son read it for school this year and he wanted me to read it.  Anyway, normally I don't feel the need to blog about a book as soon as I finish it, but this book left me feeling the need to get to my computer right away.

The Giver is an engrossing story that is written beautifully.  As much as I would love to be a writer, and as many ideas as I have for constructing a novel, it is books like this one that give me pause.  I know that I could never write as beautifully as this.

This is another dystopian young adult novel in a sea of them, it seems.  But this one was written over 20 years ago and has stood the test of time, becoming a required reading novel in middle schools.  The novel grabs you right away.  Jonas, the main character, is likable almost instantly and the reader is curious about him immediately.  Jonas lives in a world of sameness where everyone is satisfied and there are very clear rules that all people obey.  He is approaching his 12th year, a pivotal year in which he will be given his life assignment.  But when that happens, he is assigned a special role in the community, a role that is highly respected but others know very little about.  This sets Jonas on a journey that makes him different in the world of sameness and ultimately has him breaking the rules to save someone that he loves.

I would highly recommend the book.  Low on action, but high on beauty, feeling and intelligence.  I have yet to see the movie; the rest of my family watched it but knowing that I was going to read the book I chose to wait.  After finishing the novel, I am not sure I want to see the movie.  The novel is quite ambiguous at its end.  I am left feeling unsatisfied in a way.  I needed to go talk to my boys, who both read the book for school, to get their opinions and feelings on what they think the ending meant.  There are three other books in this quartet, but they tell me that they are about other characters, not Jonas (although my oldest tells me that Jonas makes an appearance in one of the other novels).  So my questions will go unanswered it seems and the author has left it up to me to determine what happened to my beloved Jonas.  I wish I could have spent more time with him.

Happy Reading!

2014 Wrap-up

I fell off the blogging wagon this year and did not keep up with blogging about the books I was reading.  I didn't even keep very good track of the books that I did read.  After the last post here, I didn't log the books I read anywhere so I had to go back and try to remember.  As a result, all of the books I read this year are not listed below.  But here is is anyway...the books that I remember reading this year.  The list totals only 25 books.  While I did not have as much time to read this year and am sure I did not hit 40 like last year, I am sure I read more than 25, and the Outlander series books (A Breath of Snow and Ashes, which is included here, and An Echo in the Bone, which will be on 2015s list because I finished it after the new year where both over 1,200 pages and took the last three months of the year to read).  Ah well, maybe this year I can track them better.

Highlights included the Outlander series, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, which was so good I had to start the next in the series as soon as I finished it (An Echo in the Bone which I just finished after the start of the new year). The Fault in our Stars was excellent and the Divergent series was very enjoyable. The 5th Wave was also very good and I look forward to reading the rest of that series. Jodi Piccoult's Lone Wolf was also an excellent read.

Happy Reading!

1. Exclusively Yours
2. On the Street Where You Live
3. Code Blue
4. The Room-Mating Season
5. A World I Never Made
6. Executive Decision
7. Prior Bad Acts
8. Snatched
9. The Front Porch Prophet
10. The Compound
11. The Tycoon and the Texan
12. A Perfect Day
13. Father of the Bride
14. Ash Wednesday
15. The Fallout
16. Divergent
17. Insurgent
18. Allegiant
19. The 5th Wave
20. The Fault in our Stars
21. The Chase
22. Big Boned
23. Size 14 Isn't Fat Either
24. Size 12 Is Not Fat
25. A Breath of Snow and Ashes